Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Companies House

Lord Harris of Haringey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the proposal to reduce the amount of time that records of dissolved companies at Companies House are retained from 20 years to six.

Lord Harris of Haringey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what objectives they are seeking to achieve as a result of the proposal to reduce the amount of time that records of dissolved companies at Companies House are retained from 20 years to six.

Lord Harris of Haringey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government which external organisations the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has consulted regarding the proposal to reduce the amount of time that records of dissolved companies at Companies House are retained from 20 years to six.

Lord Harris of Haringey: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the savings that will result from the proposal to reduce the amount of time that records of dissolved companies at Companies House are retained from 20 years to six.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: The Government has no current plans to bring forward proposals to reduce the period of time that Companies House retains records of dissolved companies. We will continue to keep the retention period under review. Any future proposal to change the retention period would be subject to public consultation.

Department for Work and Pensions

Housing Benefit: Lancashire

Lord Greaves: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of the number of households in (1) the County of Lancashire, and (2) the Borough of Pendle, that will experience reductions in their housing benefit as a result of the new cap introduced on 7 November; and what will be the total estimated annual reduction in each area.

Lord Freud: It is estimated that around 1,700 households in the County of Lancashire and 100 households in the Borough of Pendle will be affected by the lower benefit cap in 2016/17. The annual benefit reduction from the lower cap is estimated to be around £3,900,000 in the County of Lancashire and £200,000 in the Borough of Pendle in 2016/17 if the cap was in place for the full financial year, however actual savings will be much lower in view of the lower cap only applying to the latter part of the year. Notes:Estimates assume no behavioural responses - any behavioural responses to the lower cap, such as claimants moving into employment, would cause the number of households affected to reduce.The number of capped households has been rounded to the nearest 100 householdsAnnual benefit reduction has been rounded to the nearest £100,000 per year.Modelling for this assessment was conducted using administrative records held by the Department for Work and Pensions containing amounts of benefit paid (including Child Benefit, as paid by HM Revenue and Customs) and indicators of receipt of Working Tax Credit and exemption benefits such as Disability Living Allowance. This enables the separation of households into those excluded from the cap, and those which will be subject to it and by how much. The administrative records relate to November 2015, but have been adjusted to reflect the future benefit regime.  The benefit cap will be lowered from 7th November from £26,000 to £20,000, except in London where it will be lowered to £23,000 (a lower cap applies to single adult households). To help ensure Local Authorities are able to protect the most vulnerable Housing Benefit claimants and to support households adjusting to our welfare reforms, the Government will provide £870m funding for Discretionary Housing Payments over the next 5 years from 2016/17.

Employment: Disability

Baroness Thomas of Winchester: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how businesses wanting to be involved with the Disability Confident Business Leaders Group can do so.

Lord Freud: Disability Confident is about employers influencing other employers, sharing their evidence and experiences in employing disabled people with other employers to encourage them to also make the journey. This employer led approach will be reinforced by establishing a Business Leaders Group, with membership from Disability Confident employers across a wide range of sectors, sizes and geographic areas.We are currently finalising the Terms of Reference for the group and will then begin seeking members. Any employers interested in being involved should email [emailprotected]/*  */!function(t,e,r,n,c,a,p){try{t=document.currentScript||function(){for(t=document.getElementsByTagName('script'),e=t.length;e--;)if(t[e].getAttribute('data-cfhash'))return t[e]}();if(t&&(c=t.previousSibling)){p=t.parentNode;if(a=c.getAttribute('data-cfemail')){for(e='',r='0x'+a.substr(0,2)|0,n=2;a.length-n;n+=2)e+='%'+('0'+('0x'+a.substr(n,2)^r).toString(16)).slice(-2);p.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(decodeURIComponent(e)),c)}p.removeChild(t)}}catch(u){}}()/*  */, using Disability Confident Business Leaders Group in the subject heading and giving brief details of their organisation and any previous involvement.

Social Security Benefits: Medical Examinations

Baroness Thomas of Winchester: To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they will define those individuals with severe and lifelong disabling conditions who will not be subject to repeated reassessments for benefits.

Lord Freud: We will be working over the coming months with medical professionals and other stakeholders to develop criteria that will help us identify those with the most severe health conditions or disabilities, for whom repeat work capability assessments can be stopped.Rather than a list of specific medical conditions, the criteria will be based on identifying claimants with the most severe health conditions or disabilities where it would be unreasonable to expect the individual to undertake any form or amount of work or work-related activity. This change will only apply to those placed in the Support Group and Universal Credit equivalent.